Armenians - Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent.
Traditional Armenian cultural practices have changed dramatically since
the 1915 genocide and subsequent dispersal of Armenians from eastern
Anatolia. Many traditional elements still characterize contemporary
Armenian life, however, particularly in rural villages of the former
Soviet Union. The most general category of Armenian descent was the
azk,
a nonresidential community of Armenians with kinship and political
loyalties. The largest unit of Armenian kinship was the clan (
gerdastan
)
.
While this term may refer to the immediate relatives of a single parent
or grandparent, it is also used to describe patriarchal, patrilineal
clans that included ancestors in the male line, sometimes extending as
far back as six or eight generations. These clans resembled other
European and Caucasian clan organizations dating back to the Middle
Ages. Among the many responsibilities of the head of the clan were the
maintenance of clan honor, consent for all marriages, the burial of
deceased clan members, and the avenging of blood feuds. Clans often
served the purpose of self-defense against other clans and other
peoples.

Although the clans were not characteristically residential, they
sometimes occupied a particular territory within a village. In such
cases, a network of blood ties constituted a cooperative economic unit,
and consensus was required among male members for the disposal of any
property. Both residentially and nonresidentially based clans were
exogamous, with strict taboos against marriage between second cousins
and between god kin and against levirate.